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NOTICE: Shanghai Disneyland is Currently Closed!
Shanghai Disneyland closed its doors Saturday 1/25/2020 in reaction to the spread of the Coronavirus that has now killed 26 people in mainland China.
The resort complex, which normally operates 365 days per year and welcomes more than 10 million visitors annually, announced Friday afternoon local time that it will shutter the Shanghai Disneyland theme park, the Disneytown retail and dining area, the Walt Disney Grand Theatre, and Wishing Star Park. It did not give a date for their reopening.
This week is the Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is the peak time of year for internal travel within China, when typically half of the country’s 1.4 billion population travel to their home towns to be reunited with family. Seven cities have been placed under lock down measures to prevent the spread of the disease, and vast numbers of cinemas have also closed their doors.
Visitors to Shanghai Disneyland Resort’s website can find the following message:
“In response to the prevention and control of the disease outbreak and in order to ensure the health and safety of our guests and Cast, Shanghai Disney Resort is temporarily closing Shanghai Disneyland, Disneytown including Walt Disney Grand Theatre and Wishing Star Park, starting January 25, 2020. We will continue to carefully monitor the situation and be in close contact with the local government, and we will announce the reopening date upon confirmation.
Shanghai Disney Resort will assist in the refund for guests who have purchased tickets for admission to Shanghai Disneyland, have booked a resort hotel, or have booked tickets for Beauty and the Beast Mandarin Production through the original ticket purchase channel, and we will introduce the detailed procedure and guidelines via the resort’s official platforms as soon as possible.
We wish our guests a healthy and happy Spring Festival!
Shanghai Disney Resort
January 24, 2020”
The resort is issuing refunds to guests looking to cancel their trip due to the outbreak.
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We thought we would post the upcoming blockout dates for using your Disney passes at Shanghai Disneyland for the next few months.
New official link to check on blockout dates at all Disney Parks: https://blockoutdates.disney.com
February – March 2020: The blockout dates for self admission and using your guest passes are below.
During guest blockout days (aka Main Entrance Pass), you can’t use your guest passes to get friends and family into the park for free, but CMs can usually still get in for free. Just show your company ID at Guest Services and they will give you an entrance pass.
Note: The park tickets do sell out! Always check first!
CM Tip: Always check with the official Disney website for ticket availability before you go! https://www.shanghaidisneyresort.com
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We thought this online review of Shanghai Disneyland from August 2016 (3 months after Grand Opening) was very helpful:
We visited Disneyland on a Tuesday in August 2016. Yes it was very crowded and hot but it is still Disney and worth 5 stars in my opinion. By arriving early and with a plan we were able to see pretty much every major attraction in the park with a max wait time of maybe 30 minutes.
We did however skip Roaring Rapids and Buzz. Biggest complaint is the Fastpass system, if you arrive super early it is helpful to pick up FP for either Soaring or Roaring Rapids, otherwise they are all gone within 30 minutes of opening and >120 min wait. We later spent 40 minutes in line for FP in Fantasyland which was a total waste of time in the heat as we had already ridden the only 3 FP attractions offered in the area with minimal waits.
Also not impressed with the food, overpriced, crowded, not very good quality and minimal table-service offerings (though we could have gone out to Disneytown). I saw a little bit of queue jumping but not too much and staff often sent people to back of line. Occasional smoking in crowds which was annoying but not unexpected.
For those looking to avoid the lines, this was our general touring plan. We took the Metro which was about 70 minute trip. Arrived to the park by 7:30am (park was scheduled to open at 9am on that day) and there was already a relatively big line for security, however they did not start letting people through until 8am.
By 8am, the line was huge so we were glad we had arrived when we did, it still took us 15 minutes to get through but any later would have been much longer. We had bought tickets in advance and was easy to pick up at main entrance. Park opened at 9am but they had rope drop at 8:30am – the crowd at that point was massive and seemed everyone ran straight to the FP in Adventure Isle for either Soarin or RR. This was actually quite scary and dangerous and I did see a couple people fall and nearly get trampled. Use caution if have little kids or are elderly!
Our FP return time for Soarin was 11:15am despite being early in line and by that point the wait time for RR was already 60 minutes so we skipped over to Fantasyland which was nearly empty. We basically walked on to both 7 Dwarfs and Peter Pan (and still no one at all in line after we had finished), then went to Tron which only had 15 min wait. Note that by 10am the line for 7 Dwarfs was posted at 120 minutes.
Back to Fantasyland for Winnie the Pooh and Voyage to Crystal Grotto (not worth more than a 10 minute wait IMHO). We then did Soarin with Fastpass (still had about 30 minute wait time). So by 11:30am we had already been on 6 attractions with relatively minimal waiting.
Pirates was not scheduled to open until noon (check the daily times guide). We walked by around 1pm and it looked like it had opened briefly but was closing down again. But at 2pm we passed by again and it was now open with 30 minute wait time, we also went back to ride a second time around 7pm, again with 30 minute wait. Definitely worth the time (and longer).
We spent the rest of the day eating, visiting smaller attractions, shopping, watching Tarzan show (excellent), and eventually stayed for nighttime fireworks. The show was great but recommend arrive very early for good spot, otherwise difficult to see everything.
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We’ve written two books about our time working – and playing – as Disney Cast Members at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Both are available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle: Two Girls and a Mouse Tale and Adventures in the Animal Kingdom.
If you’d like to follow our daily Disney blog, here’s the link: https://collinsrace1.wordpress.com/
Have a magical day!
Our Magical Disney Moments 
My wife (a CM here in the States) and I are headed for SHDL next month. We are trying to find out if our Main Gates work the same as they do in the US Parks.
We also wonder about WiFi, rope drop, etc. If you happen to see these questions and are willing to pass along a few lessons learned and how Main Gates work, I’d greatly appreciate it.
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Hello,
You are in luck! Your company IDs will work for entrance at Shanghai Disneyland!
(You would have been blocked out all last summer!)
When you get there, just go up to Guest Services and show your company IDs. They will issue you two a day pass.
Rope drop is at 8:30am SHARP, but it’s VERY crowded.
You might find this review from August 2016 helpful:
We visited Shanghai Disneyland on a Tuesday in August 2016. Yes it was very crowded and hot but it is still Disney and worth 5 stars in my opinion. By arriving early and with a plan we were able to see pretty much every major attraction in the park with a max wait time of maybe 30 minutes. We did however skip Roaring Rapids and Buzz. Biggest complaint is the Fastpass system, if you arrive super early it is helpful to pick up FP for either Soaring or Roaring Rapids, otherwise they are all gone within 30 minutes of opening and >120 min wait. We later spent 40 minutes in line for FP in Fantasyland which was a total waste of time in the heat as we had already ridden the only 3 FP attractions offered in the area with minimal waits. Also not impressed with the food, overpriced, crowded, not very good quality and minimal table-service offerings (though we could have gone out to Disneytown). I saw a little bit of queue jumping but not too much and staff often sent people to back of line. Occasional smoking in crowds which was annoying but not unexpected.
For those looking to avoid the lines, this was our general touring plan. We took the Metro which was about 70 minute trip. Arrived to the park by 7:30am (park was scheduled to open at 9am) and there was already a relatively big line for security, however they did not start letting people through until 8am. By 8am the line was huge so we were glad we had arrived when we did, it still took us 15 minutes to get through but any later would have been much longer. We had bought tickets in advance and was easy to pick up at main entrance. Park opened at 9am but they had rope drop at 8:30am – the crowd at that point was massive and seemed everyone ran straight to the FP in Adventure Isle for either Soarin’ or RR. This was actually quite scary and dangerous and I did see a couple people fall and nearly get trampled. Use caution if have little kids, or elderly!
Our FP return time for Soarin was 11:15 despite being early in line, and by that point the wait time for RR was already 60 minutes so we skipped over to Fantasyland which was nearly empty. We basically walked on to both 7 Dwarfs and Peter Pan (and still no one at all in line after we had finished), then went to Tron which only had 15 min wait. Note that by 10 the line for 7 Dwarfs was posted at 120 minutes. Back to Fantasyland for Winnie the Pooh and Voyage to Crystal Grotto (not worth more than a 10 minute wait IMHO). We then did Soarin with Fastpass (still had about 30 minute wait time). So by 11:30 we had already been on 6 attractions with relatively minimal waiting. Pirates was not scheduled to open until noon (check the daily times guide). We walked by around 1 and it looked like it had opened briefly but was closing down again. But at 2 we passed by again and it was now open with 30 minute wait time, we also went back to ride a second time around 7, again with 30 minute wait. Definitely worth the time (and longer). We spent the rest of the day eating, visiting smaller attractions, shopping, watching Tarzan show (excellent), and eventually stayed for nighttime fireworks. The show was great but recommend arrive very early for good spot, otherwise difficult to see everything.
Visited August 2016 (3 months after Grand Opening)
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g308272-d10383031-r411243463-Shanghai_Disneyland-Shanghai.html#
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Thank you very much for your kind reply. It is greatly appreciated. Any idea if the line at Guest Services is typically long? I saw on a YouTube video that there is a CM entrance on the far right. So, I suppose we show our Main Gates at Guest Services for tickets (one day at a time?) and use the CM entrance? Amazingly, we can’t find much info on this on the hub or even by calling SHDR.
Your trip report is helpful too. I wonder why people rope drop the Fast Lass line? I’ve been watching the wait times. I’d probably rope drop Soarin and hit Rapids during the last 30 minutes of the day. Why tie up a FastPass for so long?
Any idea if single rider lines are used much?
Good to know the FP lines can be long. I was surprised by the 40min wait! I didn’t see anything like that at DL or WDW (back in the paper fast pass days). Yikes.
It’s possible to buy FastPasses now. Perhaps Disney trying to cut the middleman out; I’ve read about scalping issues.
Anyway, thank you again!!
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Hi! My hubby (a Cast member at wdw) and I will be visiting Shanghai this May. Since very few people we know have gone to Shanghai disney, there’s no one to ask! We want to know if Cast Members at wdw get merchandise/food discounts at Shanghai Disneyland. If so, is it based on their type of discount? Ex: discount A or B? Thanks so much!!
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Yes, you will!
If you currently get a 35% discount at WDW, you’ll get the same discount at Shanghai.
Have a magical trip!
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Bring any comp passes that you might have. The blockout website showed no block out days but there ended up being several when we arrived (last minute change).
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Thanks for the responses! We’ve been worried about the discounts since we love to shop! 🙂 Does anyone know if my husband uses his Main Gate for himself and I use a comp ticket, will his admission count against his 16 a year guest pass count? We always have a lot of family who visit us and we tend to use all our guest passes. If we can get away with using 2 comp tickets for me instead of 4 for both of us, and he gets in for “free” without counting against his guest passes, that would be ideal! I know, I’m overthinking this, but I’m very frugal 🙂 also, before I book a Disney resort. Anyone know if there’s a discount for CM on rooms in SDL?
Sam – Did you figure out what to do to get our comp tickets/main gates/guest passes replaced with an actual ticket? Can we do it all on one day or do we have to go to guest services everyday we have to go in? Where do we go to get that done?
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Yes, you get a hotel discount, but just like at WDW the discount is the same, but the hotel rates vary greatly throughout the year.
He needs to go to Guest Relations and show his Company ID to get a park pass.
They will print him out a pass and it won’t count against his 16. (The computer systems worldwide aren’t linked yet.)
They will print you off a guest pass for the day.
They are daily passes, so you have to do this every morning. As far as I know, the hotel concierge can’t do it at the hotel, it must be done at the park. But, ask just in case they can print your daily park pass. But, I don’t think so.
Have him bring both his Company Blue ID and his Main Gate Pass.
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We got our tickets at Guest Services which is in between security and the main entrance, on the right hand side. You have to get new tickets each day unfortunately which could put you at a disadvantage (there is a line at security then another at the main entrance w/ Guest Services in between) if it’s busy. We had problems communicating with the CM at Guest Services- she understood no English- but luckily found someone- a CM from the Lion King production- to translate for us and we used Google Translate, gestures, some
English, etc a fair amount in the park too. If you will be there on a crowded day, have a solid plan: que up hours before opening, be aggressive in both defending your place in line from que cutting and while heading to your first few attractions (run), consider purchasing Fast Passes from Disney (most certainly not the scalpers which you’ll see), have a Chinese SIM card installed so you can watch the wait times (WiFi was find but spotty), do headliners at rope drop or at the end of the day, try to hit the first showing of the shows, the Disneyland Hotel is a 10-15 min walk away and close enough for a midday break when the lines are at peak, etc., etc. The lines can get astronomically long; Soarin is the favorite attraction and we say 3 to 4 to even 5+ hr waits for it. Watch the wait times on the app from Florida to get an idea of the patterns. Wear closed toe shoes for the Challenge Trails. And, show your ID’s to the CM’s manning the VIP viewing area for be nighttime show; maybe you’ll also be able to talk your way into the area.
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Where do I go to book a discounted hotel rate? I don’t see it on the hub. Thank you so much!! This is so helpful. I greatly appreciate your responses and your blog!
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You have to call them in Shanghai. We used Skype
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